A number of other initiatives flowed from the Okinawa summit, including the establishment of the G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force). The WEF Digital Divide Task Force works together with other multilateral organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and indeed is one of eleven founding members of the DOT Force (see DOT Force: The Genoa Plan of Action). Now in its implementation phase, the Task Force is pursuing three separate programme areas, each of which has a steering committee:

1. Entrepreneurship


2. Policy and e-Strategies


3. Education

From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity

The Task Force prepared a flagship report called ‘From the Global Digital Divide to the Global Digital Opportunity’, which comprised the WEF’s submission to the G8 Okinawa summit. This was the result of discussions and consultations held by the Task Force. It contains a raft of proposals, set within a framework which provides a clear set of 10 policy actions, parts of which were adopted in the final communiqué of the summit.

The report begins by debunking the notion of ‘digital divide’ as overly pessimistic: ‘Framing the international debate in terms of a “Global Digital Divide” risks distracting our attention from the substantial progress that has been made by many developing countries in recent years’ opens the report, ‘As such, the Task Force believed that it would be better to frame the international debate in terms of a “Global Digital Opportunity” and to launch and support initiatives that would enable developing countries to seize that opportunity as quickly as possible.’

Guiding Principles and Proposed Initiatives

The report delineates nine guiding principles, within which ten policy actions are proposed (highlighted in bold - emphasis added):

1. ‘The G-8 should take a leadership role by advancing, together with developing countries, a positive vision of the global digital opportunity and by organising a co-ordinated effort, backed by high-level support, to assist developing countries in its realisation’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Adopt a declaration of principals and a set of pragmatic initiatives.
   
   
   • Establish a high-level working group on the global digital economy. This could: serve as a focal point for the co-ordination and execution of selected technical assistance programmes (TAPs); co-ordinate and share information with the other international stakeholders; monitor both the various international initiatives under way and progress achieved; and to manage the publication of information on that progress.
   
   
   • Organise half-day sessions on the global digital opportunity.




2. ‘While much can be achieved through individual efforts, in many cases it also would be helpful to co-ordinate the digital opportunity programmes of multilateral institutions, the international business community, and civil societal and philanthropic organisations’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Establish a co-ordinating committee on the global digital opportunity.
   
   
   • Inter-organisational co-ordination of the various conferences and specialised meetings.
   
   
   • Multilateral institutions could establish web portals providing “one-stop shopping” access to information about the range of programmes, opportunities and experiences in the respective sectors.
   
   
   • Establish mechanisms to enhance the participation of the private sector and civil societal organisations in intergovernmental forums and programmes.
   
   
   • The international business community and civil societal organisations may wish to consider the utility of establishing international co-ordination mechanisms.




3. ‘Government could increase their ability to contribute to the realisation of the digital opportunity by establishing mechanisms – subject to high-level oversight and leadership – for the internal co-ordination of forward-looking national strategies and policies’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Governments could establish new policy mechanisms to co-ordinate digital opportunity initiatives at the domestic level (such as a cabinet-level co-ordinating committee, or a new Ministry).
   
   
   • Governments should “lead be example” be effectively employing information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their own organisational management.
   
   
   • Governments should establish more effective and transparent institutional arrangements for co-operation with other stakeholders on the design, implementation and evaluation of their strategies.
   
   
   • Governments should ensure that all digital opportunity initiatives should include specific measures addressing the problems faced by the most disadvantaged segments of society.
   
   
   • Governments of developing countries would benefit by working more closely with multilateral institutions to design capacity building strategies and sustainable mechanisms for their implementation and evaluation.




4. ‘Universal access to education and technology training is a fundamental prerequisite for the transition to knowledge societies’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Developing countries urgently need to realign their budgetary priorities and make universal access to quality education a top national objective.
   
   
   • Governments could undertake a commitment to fund the wiring of schools and public libraries in the developing world for Internet access.
   
   
   • Governments could undertake a commitment to fund the training of teachers and librarians in the developing world in the use of technology.
   
   
   • The G-8 and other governments could establish a “Global Digital Opportunity Corps” comprising skilled personnel who would visit developing countries to carry out fixed-term instructional projects geared towards teachers and librarians.
   
   
   • The international community, especially the international business community, could establish voluntary programmes to fund access to technology tools for education in the developing world (such as new and recycled computers).
   
   
   • The international community, especially multilateral institutions and philanthropic organisations, could establish programmes to bring to the developing world independent analyses of the global digital economy.




5. ‘To create a dynamic climate in which entrepreneurship can flourish, macroeconomic stability and new sources of commercial financing are essential’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Developing countries would benefit from reforming their financial sectors in order to increase the local availability of capital and consumer credit.
   
   
   • Establish or expand existing facilities providing seed monies (including micro-lending) for local research and commercial development of low-cost technologies and applications.
   
   
   • Establish “business incubators” and entrepreneurial networks.
   
   
   • Establish e-chambers of commerce.
   
   
   • Establish “one-stop shopping” web portals where businesses, both domestic and international, could gain access to relevant legislative, regulatory and judicial information that would affect their planning.
   
   
   • Industrialised countries and multilateral institutions should deepen their co-operation with developing countries to help them achieve the macroeconomic stability needed to attract investment and to facilitate business planning.




6. ‘The digital empowerment of civil society is a key foundation of development in the information age’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   Fund the establishment of community telecentres in the developing world.
   

   • Developing countries should ensure that individual citizens and non-commercial organisations can access, produce, distribute, and use information without artificial restrictions.
   
   
   • Create programmes with developing countries which promote their unique cultural heritages.
   
   
   • Create locally-relevant and usable content.
   
   
   • Promote low cost access to multilingual interfaces and translation tools and adapt them to local conditions in developing countries.




7. ‘Pro-competitive telecommunications policies are a prerequisite to realising the global digital opportunity’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Urge developing countries to adopt and fully implement the pro-competitive reform principals embodied in the Reference Paper that many members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have incorporated into their telecommunications commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
   
   
   • G-8 governments could announce their intention to expand and institutionalise technical assistance programmes (TAPs) supporting the new regulatory authorities in the developing world.
   
   
   • Urge developing countries to otherwise deepen their pro-competitive market access commitments on basic telecommunications under the terms of GATS, to accelerate the implementation of such commitments, or to undertake commitments if they have not already done so.
   
   
   • Urge developing countries that have yet to do so to undertake the privatisation of their national telecommunications operators once an effective framework promoting and safeguarding competition has been established.
   
   
   • Developing countries could establish special incentives to foster investment in the rapid deployment of capital intensive information infrastructures.
8. ‘Pro-competitive policies for the Internet are essential to promote the deployment of infrastructure and the affordable use of services by organisations and the general public’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Establish mechanisms promoting the rapid deployment of intra-regional backbones.
   
   
   • Create a facilitative policy environment for Internet service providers (ISPs).
   
   
   • Developing countries also should carefully consider the costs and benefits of existing telecommunications tariffs for Internet dial-up connections.
   
   
   • Phasing out tariffs on the importation of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
   
   
   • A special programme to assist developing countries in combating computer-related crime.
   
   
   • Provide funds to ensure that diverse stakeholders from developing countries are able to participate in international forums where Internet technical and policy issues are addressed.
9. ‘Pro-competitive policies on global economic commerce will greatly accelerate the transition to dynamic and self-sustaining information age technologies’.

   Proposed initiatives:

   • Call on developing countries to adopt enabling national policies [with respect to global electronic commerce] on such issues as market access and foreign investment, intellectual property, taxation, encryption, digital signatures and contracts, network security and computer crime, liability, consumer protection and privacy protection.
   
   
   • Call on developing countries to adopt forward-looking positions on the coverage of electronic commerce-related goods and services under the instruments of the WTO.
   
   
   • G-8 governments could ‘unilaterally declare their intention to eliminate any restriction on developing country exports of electronic commerce-related goods and services.’
   
   
   • G-8 governments could ‘announce their intention to expand technical assistance programmes focussing on electronic commerce policy.’

Resources:

The report can be downloaded from the WEF at: http://www.weforum.org